Grammy winner Arturo Sandoval joins OC orchestra for 'Latin Fire' in Costa Mesa

COSTA MESA, Calif. (KABC) -- The Pacific Symphony presented "Latin Fire," a concert fusing Latin music and jazz at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.

Arturo Sandoval, an 11-time Grammy winning jazz trumpeter, was in the show. He delivered popular songs like "Every Day I Think of You" and "Smile."

"Jazz probably is one of the most sincere styles of music because the main thing of what we do on stage is improvisation. We improvise what we do. It's nothing premeditated that we prepare in advance. We are improvising and share our emotions, feelings with the audience," Sandoval said.

The conductor of the show, Enrico Lopez-Yañez, is the first Latino pops conductor. Pops means non-classical music that is played with an orchestra, such as jazz.

He says Latin music is best experienced live because you can sense the energy of the band, the rhythm, the orchestra and the people around you.

"The first half will feature two other special guests, Mónica Ábrego who is a soprano from Mexico, and Jose Sibaja who is a trumpet player from Costa Rica, who originally toured with Ricky Martin for over a decade and artists like Gloria Estefan, Sylvia Cruz, all the big Latin artists," Lopez-Yañez said.

Yañez says they have more fun shows coming in the future.

"We still have Lyle Lovett coming up in March and then we'll be celebrating the music of Elton John with Michael Cavanaugh, an amazing pianist and vocalist. We're also doing of course, Ben Rector and Cody Fry, both of my favorite artists out there in the pop genre right now," Lopez-Yañez said.

For a list of shows and times, you can go to pacificsymphony.org.